Re: [HackerspaceSG] Do you have skills + character? = A great CTO/co-founder position awaits

[Martin Bähr]

On Mon, Oct 22, 2012 at 09:21:31PM -0700, MetaKrystal wrote:
> - It is a travel product
> - Full PSD-layered designs, wireframes and functions are completed
> - We constantly evolve - your feedback will be treasured and implemented
> - With an MVP, I am confident of getting significant backing, so you won't
> be working for just equity for long

have you validated the idea?
did/do you show the designs to potential users to find out if it is
something they would use?
do you have people registering now because they want to use the product
when it is ready?
what is it that makes your product interesting?
how do you plan to make money?

you don't need to answer all these questions here on the list, but i
hope you have answers for them and others.

greetings, martin.
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[Gideon Simons]

Wow, reading this I feel showered with honesty (unless there is something you aren't telling us :)

Since you are in this situation and are building an MVP for a travel service and unless you are building a flight seat occupancy prediction and optimization engine, you may be able to get something up with a few wordpress plugins and some kind of mailing list like mailchimp.

It doesn't even have to look bad there are a lot of great themes and templates out there, get some users to feedback.

It will give you a good indication for all the things Martin mentioned and help you attract more stakeholders (like a CTO). All in true MVP spirit.

Keep your sexy wireframes and cut out PSDs to show investors/angels/governement your future plans for improvement and see if they want to help get the ball rolling.

Just something for you to consider until you get your CTO.

Gideon

Martin Bähr          http://societyserver.org/mbaehr/

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Gideon

[Atamert Ölçgen]

Hi Krystal,

On Tue, Oct 23, 2012 at 12:21 PM, MetaKrystal <he...@metakrystal.com> wrote:

I apologise if this post offends anyone.

I don't think anyone here would be offended against honesty. If you would like to improve this particular pitch here is some suggested reading:

http://whartoniteseekscodemonkey.tumblr.com/

 

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www.muhuk.com

[Alvin Jiang]

You may need to take a few steps back (to begin with a job). Here's why:

There are two main reasons why people take up a job: money or passion.  It's usually a combination of both, with the lower end more about money to meet basic needs than passion for the job, and the higher end more of job fit (if you can command $1m/yr, it's going to be about the right job not the exact figure.)

With a startup "looking for co-founder/CTO/bizmonkey" you're trying to tap on an person's desire for the latter without addressing the former. This is a shaky proposition even for the founder who ought to be the most passionate person in a young startup. You may luck out with someone who has basic needs met from another source (previous exit, family money, mature professional) but such a person who's willing to "work for free" is likely to have his own passions and be looking for help on his project rather than working on yours.

What of the odd fellows who you might get to help? If you're offering an "opportunity" without ensuring that the basic needs are taken care of, you're likely to attract someone willing to work only on a "best effort" basis. This is not the way to build a business, though again if you're lucky "best effort" from founders may prove in short time to be worth full-time commitment.

As you're still asking the basic question "does anyone agree with me this is a great idea worth giving up a paycheque for?" and hearing echoes, you may need to consider that maybe only you think it's a great idea. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it means you will need to pay someone to implement, or learn to do it yourself.

If doing it yourself is not an option, you need to hire someone. No money? No problem. Here's my advice; get a job, save up some money and see if it's worth your hard-earned cash to pay someone to implement it for you.

You've been at it several months and gone nowhere, if the idea is still good then it's likely to still be in another 6 months. At $3k a month you should have saved enough after 4-6 months of contract work to hire a basically competent developer to get some stuff done for you.

In the meantime there's no reason you can't moonlight on the non-tech aspects whilst you toil away for someone else during the day.

Good luck, but don't depend on it.

PS. There is a 3rd reason people accept startup jobs - greed. Many inexperienced founders play on this willingly or otherwise. Don't fall for that trap or you'll end up with the same results. When the going gets tough, your "co-founder" doesn't see his large equity stake maturing fast enough and bails out.

On 23 Oct, 2012, at 12:21 PM, MetaKrystal <he...@metakrystal.com> wrote:

Hi HackerSpacefolks,

I'm just going to be super honest here, so please forgive me.

Many months ago I came on here looking for a developer. I found a few and eventually worked with one very closely to develop a travel product. A few months ago, he completely disappeared. As in, no network updates, no replies, with conflicting information stating NS, doing Masters at INSEAD, etc. 

Moving on, I got a friend from the US to work remote. He was very interested in the project from Day 1, but I only had need for that one developer. Needless to say, when it came down to producing an actual MVP, he has proven hard to reach.

I understand that people need money. I understand this too well, as my last paycheck was in 2011, before I left to set up tech shop. I also understand responsibility, when you come in as a co-founder and partner, everyone pulls their own weight and we all win. Yes, there is risk, but why agree to something if you don't truly believe or want to produce? This boggles me. It could be that I'm too friendly in the working relationship. It could be that they only realised later that they just wanted money. I could keep guessing, but I'll just never know. All I can do is keep plugging on and not be so naive. 

WHICH MEANS, I'm back and I want a CTO!

I would be so happy to work with someone who:

- Builds a great MVP

- Is meticulous and proud of his/her work

- Wants ownership, and is a master of his/her domain

- Wants to give input to develop a great product, not just another app that skins data in a different way

- Lives in Singapore and does not plan to move

- Has integrity and commitment - plans to stay the whole run

(As mentioned, I do not want to work with just a developer. I want a CTO/tech co-founder to have ownership of this product.)

Why work with me?

- My designer and I are great partners to work with.

- We are good, positive, interesting people. 

- We are also very critical of product and processes, and will distill things so that everyone is clear and on the same page.

- We are democratic and debate functions based on merit till we reach a win-win (which we do). 

- We have immense respect for each other and you

- No egos involved: we are a team with very different skills

- Skills and product are valued over BS

- We are geeks and enjoy fun things!

Some other information:

- It is a travel product

- Full PSD-layered designs, wireframes and functions are completed

- We constantly evolve - your feedback will be treasured and implemented

- With an MVP, I am confident of getting significant backing, so you won't be working for just equity for long

- Let's meet up and I will show you!

Do any developers here feel like they are up to the role? Anyone here with integrity and want to be an integral part of a start-up (which will be a full-fledged business soon)? I am very keen to hear from you. Building a great team is crucial, and if you feel that you're the type of person who likes a challenge, enjoys working with smart people who respect and value you, and want to build an exciting product (potentially getting serious money in the not-too-distant future), then you need to contact me asap. 

My details:

HP: 9182 9490

E: he...@metakrystal.com

I apologise if this post offends anyone. I appreciate any encouragement, advice, or other insight that could help me in my technopreneurship journey. I respect the skills developers have, and appreciate the reasons behind them not taking up certain jobs. I'm simply looking for someone who knows exactly what they want - and it's what I'm offering. Please be nice!

Thank you so much for your time in reading this.

Most Respectfully,

Krystal.

[Meng Weng Wong]

I couldnt agree more with Alvin's very thoughtful comments. Alvin, we should write a white paper about this!

[Jeffrey 'jf' Lim]

On Wed, Oct 24, 2012 at 11:30 AM, MetaKrystal <he...@metakrystal.com> wrote:
> Thank you for this, Martin.
>
> This was a great reminder for me to keep grounded. I took a good, hard look
> at what I've done so far, and I'm happy to say that I have good answers for
> all the questions you have posted, except the "interesting" one - if we were
> to be pedantic about the meaning of that word - I would say it were more
> exciting because of the doors it opens to add value to all our consumers.
>


you also need to show that u have these answers already in ur search
for that CTO. You haven't.

As for when to get investors... I would say that ur sense of timing is
just about right.

-jf

--
He who settles on the idea of the intelligent man as a static entity
only shows himself to be a fool.

"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."
--Richard Stallman


> Thanks for this and I will make sure these questions are constantly in front
> of the product.

>> Martin B�hr http://societyserver.org/mbaehr/

[Gideon Simons]

Hi Krystal,

Don't worry about coming out too "honest" I only take it as showing your passion in the whole venture, you have come until now and despite all the CTO issues you are still pushing it forward!

What I suggested were a few ways to move forward CTO-less , with easy existing web services.

Regarding your investor process it is one way to do it and of course if you can become profitable without investors it's best. However there are a few good sides to getting investors earlier into the business that you should consider.

- Having more stakeholders to share the risk with you

- It adds a lot to your credibility

- You have some money

- You can get a better team and build a better prduct

- The investor will most likely use his connections and resources to help you achieve your goals

- Your company's valuation estimate will be higher.
and more..

Good luck!

Gideon

On Wed, Oct 24, 2012 at 11:39 AM, MetaKrystal <he...@metakrystal.com> wrote:

Hi Gideon,

I am indeed a purveyor of honesty. But to be frank, I'm just a bit tired and worn down from this CTO chase. I realise this may have been heavily channelled into the email. My bad!

You have called me out correctly - I don't know the investor game and process thoroughly. My logic was to build as far and as much as possible, and with an MVP seek investors, but always simultaneously improving the product on parallel. I want to ensure the product is a running business that can be profitable without investors. Any investments made should only be used to spur growth, move faster, reach more markets and create awareness about the product through PR and other marketing channels. 

(TLDR; Product must be a viable business to start with, investment boosts it significantly.)

That being said, I feel that building a good working beta will help me achieve three things:

1) A larger investment amount because product has been proven and is in market

2) A greater confidence in the team and product because of distance travelled sans funding
3) Iterate in the right direction by nipping problems in the bud with real users

Thanks for your advice and I will keep this in mind.

--
Gideon

[Meng Weng Wong]

On 24 Oct, 2012, at 3:45 PM, MetaKrystal <he...@metakrystal.com> wrote:

Your insight, as always, is sharp, poignant and very helpful. I agree with Meng that this should be a whitepaper, or at the very least, a Quora answer.

OK, white paper done!

http://rtfm.jfdi.asia/hiring-and-firing/

[Martin]

This is awesome! Thanks for sharing!

[Meng Weng Wong]

another good piece

http://viniciusvacanti.com/becoming-your-own-technical-co-founder/

[Jason Ong]

First chapter is sehr gut.

On Wed, Oct 31, 2012 at 10:03 PM, Meng Weng Wong <meng...@gmail.com> wrote:

another good piece

http://viniciusvacanti.com/becoming-your-own-technical-co-founder/

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[Meng Weng Wong]

I'm really glad you called me on this – it's important that people speak up about issues of gender politics, particularly in our male-dominated field.

Now I know that at least one person read the white paper all the way through :)

I've taken the para out of the online version. It got taken out of the PDF already.

I do want to continue to explore this issue, though. Let me begin by making a number of statements.

Suppose we want to make the case for Singapore, to foreign programmers, whether male, female, or LGBT:

1. it never gets cold here, and for people who have trouble every winter typing with frozen fingers, it is a good place to code.

2. our food has flavour. programmers who are also foodies may enjoy the infinite variety of eastern and western cuisines.

3. it has a good primary and secondary educational system, and for people with young children, it is a good place to raise a family.

3. it has a very low crime rate, and a generally phlegmatic population, so that single females can feel safe walking anywhere, at any time.

4. strictly observant Muslim programmers may find Singapore more convenient, as mosques are more densely available for daily prayers.

5. a solo straight dude looking to date, with the intention of getting married, will find a greater density of single women here than in the Bay Area.

6. a lesbian woman looking to be left alone to code will likewise be satisfied, as men in this country tend not to hit on women aggressively.

All of the above are, I believe, true.

Is there a more politically correct way to make my point #5, than how I phrased it previously?

[Martin Bähr]

On Sun, Nov 11, 2012 at 10:12:50PM +0800, Meng Weng Wong wrote:
> 3. it has a good primary and secondary educational system, and for people
> with young children, it is a good place to raise a family.

i hear a lot about competition in singapore schools so i am not so sure
about that one.

> 6. a lesbian woman looking to be left alone to code will likewise be
> satisfied, as men in this country tend not to hit on women aggressively.

is this limited only to lesbians? i think this statement can be made
more general.

> Is there a more politically correct way to make my point #5, than how I
> phrased it previously?

what about the percentage of single males? can it be said that generally
there are more singles in singapore? if so the statement could be made
gender neutral.

greetings, martin.
--
cooperative communication with sTeam - caudium, pike, roxen and unix
services: debugging, programming, training, linux sysadmin, web development
--
pike programmer working in china societyserver.(org|net)
foresight developer community.gotpike.org foresightlinux.org
unix sysadmin (open-steam|www.caudium).org realss.com

Martin B�hr http://societyserver.org/mbaehr/

[Patrick Haller]

On 2012-11-11 22:12, Meng Weng Wong wrote:
> Is there a more politically correct way to make my point #5, than how I
> phrased it previously?

Sell the vision, not the features? I.e. try nixing the identity /
preference keywords and just talk about SG

Vision: SG = the land of opportunity

As the regional entrepot for SE Asia and beyond, SG has an incredibly
strong and diverse dating culture as young people from all over the world
come here to educate themselves and to begin their careers....

[Isaac]

this is an inspiring thread. great callout and great response.

some notes on the singapore feature list -

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3. it has a good primary and secondary educational system, and for people with young children, it is a good place to raise a family.

>i would nuance this. singapore is an amazing place to raise kids under 5 b/c of cheap/live-in child care + safety + ease of getting around. it gets more complex after that b/c local schools are a) not easily accessible and b) not perceived as desirable by most foreigners. hence international school is often the result which is high quality but very expensive. 

5. a solo straight dude looking to date, with the intention of getting married, will find a greater density of single women here than in the Bay Area.

>the marriage normativity here is distasteful in my view i.e politically correct in the bad way. what about the solo straight dude not looking to get married? shall he be shunned? For me there is nothing wrong to say that it's a great place to meet girls. and perhaps you might accentuate the diversity of options, i.e, wonderful/ talented/beautiful women from all corners of the world. as to whether it's a great dating scene for young women, i wonder is that actually true? not saying it's not just never heard that. . . 

6. a lesbian woman looking to be left alone to code will likewise be satisfied, as men in this country tend not to hit on women aggressively.

>covered in #3 about the phlegmatic locals no? again feels like a politically correct sop rather than a serious point. and bigger fact is singapore sucks a bit if you are gay b/c it's still technically illegal. however there is a thriving gay scene nonetheless. so perhaps go with that - "not as bad as you've heard for homosexuals" :-)